Gospel Glitter
“If only you believe what I believe, you can have what I have too!” That’s the essence of the message preached by a group of wealthy Pentecostal pastors on a new reality TV show called Preachers of L.A. But when you dust off all the gold and push aside the Rolex watches of these celebrity status church leaders, will you find a true biblical message in this prosperity gospel?
Kate Bowler, an assistant professor of the History of Christianity in the United States at Duke Divinity School and author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, writes for CNN:
Money. Women. Fame. Church. That's a day in the life of The Preachers of L.A., a new reality show centered on the lives of megachurch pastors of the so-called “prosperity gospel.” The show, which premiers Wednesday night on the Oxygen Network, is a chaotic mix of prayer, "house porn," and neatly orchestrated dust-ups between senior pastors and their “first ladies.” In some ways, the combination of the prosperity gospel with the Real Housewives format is a match made in Oprah-produced heaven. Men of the cloth cruise Southern California in lavish cars weighed down by their gold watches and tiny dogs. [1]
Prosperity theology appears to have biblical support. Doesn’t God promise to give us good health (3 John 1:2) and pour out blessings from heaven (Malachi 3:10) in such abundance that we wouldn’t have enough room in our bank accounts to receive it? This gospel of success is pitched as a simple contract between a believer and God. If you have enough faith, the Lord will reward you … with wealth and health.
But does a celebrity status of spiritual leaders really find support in God’s Word? Do we find genuine prophets and true apostles leaving the synagogue with an entourage that includes gleaming cars and fawning women? Does Paul parade new believers through a luxurious mansion as evidence of how God will change their lives? Isn’t an Olympic-size swimming pool and monogrammed pocket squares a way to help people know the Lord really cares about them?
The problem with the health and wealth gospel is that it does not truly line up with the Bible. There are pieces missing. God does not always prevent His children from suffering and loss. John the Baptist suffered as a martyr at the hand of Herod (Matthew 14:1–12). Paul was plagued with a “thorn in the flesh” to help him avoid exalting himself and his successes (2 Corinthians 12:6–8). “The love of money” is called “the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Christ “became poor” so that we might become “rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). But such wealth has less to do with gold and more to do with grace (Ephesians 1:7).
God has blessed some people with wealth, but not for the purpose of living in luxury. Their abundance is given in order to help spread the gospel. The Lord has healed many, but some people have suffered as a witness for Jesus. The glitter of the prosperity gospel appeals to many, but when you lift up the thin veneer of this teaching, you find vanity and idolatry … characteristics that are in direct opposition to the Scriptures.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy
of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and
gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
(Ephesians 4:1-3)
However,
if works are done with pride or arrogance, or for the sake of
appearance rather than truth and righteousness, they will cause harm.
They may also produce some good, but the account of the Two Trees in the
Garden of Eden teaches that, in the context of eternity, a mixture of
good and evil is really only evil.